"What are the chances..." - Former UFC star makes Dana White and Dylan Mulvaney joke after promotion's latest Bud Light deal

Ben Askren was never on good terms with UFC president Dana White. The strenuous relationship between the two has come into the spotlight on several occasions. Askren has long been retired from competing professionally in MMA but seems to be poking fun at Dana White on Social media even now.

Recently, Fox News host Charly Arnolt posted about the UFC’s new deal with Bud Light and revealed a snippet of her conversation with the UFC CEO via her X (formerly Twitter account). She wrote:

“#UFC has inked a sponsorship deal with Bud Light worth $100 million dollars, making it the official beer of the fighting promotion. I spoke to Dana White about it and says even the staunchest conservatives have offered support with one saying “you can’t torture someone forever.”

Ben Askren replied to the post and commented:

“What are the chances Dana has Dylan Mulvaney sitting front row [followed by laughing emojis]”

See the social media post below:

Bud Light was the UFC’s first official beer sponsor before the MMA giant signed a deal with Modelo. However, the UFC is back in the business with Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch once again.

Ben Askren’s comment refers to a fairly recent controversy surrounding Bud Light’s marketing campaign. The advertising campaign featured transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney as its face. However, the more conservative section of the society rebelled against the move and called for a boycott on Bud Light.

It resulted in a massive drop in the beer’s sale. The company management later announced that they would focus their marketing campaigns more on sports and music.

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Dana White’s full statement after the deal between the UFC and Bud Light

The UFC’s decision to go with Bud Light might seem like a mistake to a lot of MMA fans. However, Dana White explained the logic behind signing the deal with the brand during a recent appearance on Fox News. He said:

“Going into this deal - I know all the controversy and everything else. But for myself, going into the long term deal with another sponsor, I wanted it to be somebody that I am actually aligned with. People were upset with what they did but I’m looking at all the good things that they do.”

White then went on to list the positive achievements of the company and said:

“They employed 65,000 Americans, they have thousands of military veterans that work for them. They spend 700 million dollars a year with US farmers using their crops to make their products and many, many other great things that Anheuser-Busch has done in this country”.

The UFC CEO is focusing on these things as he signs a six-year deal with Bud Light and not just the controversy surrounding the marketing campaign.

Watch Dana White’s full discussion about the deal below: